A Baltimore dad’s strong Lottery luck has passed on to one of his daughters, who won the $150,000 top prize on her first Maryland Lottery scratch-off.

“It only takes one (ticket),” said the proud papa, who is a loyal player and steady winner of small sums on a variety of Lottery games. “I hit often,” he said. The man gave his adult daughter the gift of the Twisted Bingo scratch-off to play “just because.”

The novice player scratched off the eight play boards on her bingo scratch-off at home and, in disbelief, showed it to her father. Was she really holding a $150,000 top-prize winning scratch-off?

Happily, the answer was yes. “He confirmed everything,” she said. The happy winner, who works with children, plans to pay bills and put the money into a college fund so four children in the family who are now ages 6 to 12 can enjoy a higher education.

The father, who works in a warehouse in the Baltimore area, bought the winning $10 scratch-off at a Speedy Mart at 7501 Harford Road in Parkville. For selling the ticket, the Baltimore-area retailer will receive a $1,000 bonus from the Lottery. The ticket has two more $150,000 top-prize winners in Maryland stores awaiting discovery.

A Baltimore retiree had delayed getting a birthday card for her sister-in-law for several days due to the snow in Maryland last week. When the weather finally cleared, the 75-year-old went to the store to pick up the card and made a second stop for two $10 scratch-offs, one of which turned out to be a $100,000 top-prize winner!

“I just about had a heart attack,” the woman told Lottery officials. “I was in the store and I showed the person working.”

Her $100,000 Richer scratch-off was indeed a big winner. Immediately, she called her brother-in-law to share the good news.

“I almost had a heart attack too!” he said, laughing. “You don’t really expect to ever win that much.”

Braving the blistering cold weather, the duo bundled up and drove to Lottery headquarters in Baltimore the next day so the lucky woman could claim her prize.

“It’s good to see this happen to someone so deserving,” her brother-in-law said.

The woman, who is on a strict budget, plans to put the money into savings for a rainy day. “This money will be good for when I need it,” she said.

She bought the winning $100,000 Richer scratch-off at the Speedy Mart located at 7501 Harford Road in Parkville. There are five remaining top prizes left on the ticket.

A handful of scratch-offs and a spattering of luck was all it took for a Baltimore husband and wife to start their week off with a bang. The couple had purchased five scratch-offs earlier this morning before returning home to do some housework. Little did they know, the pair would have to take a break from cleaning and make a trip down to Lottery headquarters to claim a Blackout Bingo $30,000 scratch-off prize.

The couple, who have been married for 44 years, didn’t have the chance to call their family to share the good news before they came in to claim their prize. “We just came right over,” the lucky man laughed. “We’ll tell them everything later.”

The 66-year-old woman was the one who actually checked the tickets. “The first few tickets I checked weren’t winners, so I wasn’t expecting to win anything on the last two. I couldn’t believe it when the last ticket matched up,” the woman said. “My husband was outside mowing the lawn, I just ran outside waving the ticket at him.”

When asked if they had ever won something substantial like this before, the woman quickly responded, nudging her husband, “The only big thing I’ve ever won was him.”

The pair already knows what they want to do with the winnings and can’t wait to put the money to good use. “We just took a loan out to put a new roof on the house,” the woman shared. “First thing we’ll do is pay that bill off!” The lucky duo bought their ticket at Liquor Outlet at 1967 E. Joppa Rd. in Parkville.

The second 40 Rubies second chance drawing took place on Wednesday, May 1st. The winners are:

Thomas Humphries from Parkville – $4,000

Sharon Lafferty from Halethorpe – $4,000

Danny Loudermilk from Dundalk – $4,000

Carol Mitchell from Catonsville – $40,000

Winners are guaranteed to take home at least $4,000, but one lucky person will walk away with $40,000! Prizes will be revealed on Saturday, May 18 at Wine in the Woods in Columbia, MD. All winners and a guest are invited to join the Maryland Lottery for the evening, where they can join in the fun and find out just how much they’ve won!

A Parkville woman took full advantage of the most recent Keno promotion which offers a free 5 Card Cashticket with a $10 Keno purchase. To her surprise, the free 5 Card Cash ticket printed with a Royal Flush worth $10,000.

The woman, who plays $10 on Keno every week, had no idea what her ticket was worth when it first printed out. “At first I thought I needed to wait until the evening,” she told Lottery officials. “My friend saw the ticket, and told me that I had definitely won something big.” After double checking with a 5 Card Cash pamphlet she was shocked to see that her ticket was worth $10,000.

The humble winner saw this was life’s way of “paying it forward.” The woman, who works two jobs and always jumps at the chance to help others, is excited to be able to pass the generosity on. “I’m definitely going to give the bartender who sold me my ticket a nice tip when I see him next,” she said with a huge grin.

The first-time 5 Card Cash player said she will definitely continue to take advantage of the promotion while playing Keno through the rest of the month. She plans to use some of the winnings to help a friend and wants to save the rest. The winning ticket was purchased at Freddies, located at 660 Boulton Street in Bel Air. Through November 25, 2012, all Keno purchases of at least $10 will receive a free 5 Card Cash ticket.

A Baltimore woman could not believe her eyes when she scratched the top prize of $150,000 on a Diamond Dazzler Bingo scratch off. She realized she did not have her correct glasses on and thought that was why her eyes were deceiving her. Once she had her correct reading glasses on, she checked the ticket again, only to realize she did indeed win $150,000.

“I couldn’t believe that I won; I checked the ticket almost 50 times to make sure I was really a winner,” said the woman. An avid Diamond Dazzler Bingo player, the Baltimore woman always takes some of her ticket winnings to buy more; yet she never thought she would be cashing in her ticket for the top prize.

Shirley Raigns from Parkville has been a bit stressed out of late due to some bills that were piling up. So, when the 55-year-old saw “Maryland Lottery” on her phone’s caller ID, she was pretty excited. “I knew I’d entered the MONOPOLY™ contest,” said Shirley.

With high expectations, she called back and quickly discovered that she had, indeed, won $50,000 in the MONOPOLY™ scratch-off bonus drawing. An avid Lottery fan, Shirley has been playing since she was 18 years of age. “This $50,000 win blew me out of the water,” said the retired government worker. “And now I can swim,” she added with a laugh.

Shirley, who was accompanied to Lottery Headquarters by her oldest niece, spoke enthusiastically about the MONOPOLY™ scratch-off. “It’s my favorite ticket,” she said. “I love the board game and also like playing the online game.” Shirley entered about ten tickets into the drawing and received several other bonus entries as well. While the former recreation therapist intends use the prize money to pay those accumulating bills, she said she will also spread the joy. “I’ll share with my nieces and nephews, grand nieces and nephews, great-grand nieces and nephews, oh and church too.”

The MONOPOLY™ scratch-off and Bonus Drawings have proven so popular that six more $50,000 top prizes were added to the ticket, as well as two more Bonus Drawings. Players can enter the Bonus Drawings by entering non-winning MONOPOLY™ scratch-offs at mdlottery.com/Monopoly. The next drawing will take place on June 19.

A Parkville couple and a retired Baltimore City man each claimed second-tier $250,000 Mega Millions prizes today. Both winning tickets were purchased for last Friday night’s drawing.

The couple, Anthony and Patty (last name withheld), were dining with friends at their favorite Parkville restaurant on Friday when the urge to play Mega Millions struck. “We knew the jackpot was getting pretty big, so we figured we’d give it a go,” said Anthony, who works in construction. Checking the results the next morning in hopes of a $5 or maybe $10 win, Patty, an accountant, noticed that many of their numbers matched, but she didn’t trust her eyes. Anthony was outside at the time, loading his truck. “Next thing I knew she’s running out the front door waving her laptop at me.” Their good fortune came to them at the Valley View Inn, 8712 Satyr Hill Road in Parkville.

On that same day, a 66-year-old retired state employee also purchased a Mega Millions ticket. The Baltimore man, who only plays when the jackpot is big, told Lottery officials that he was still “in a daze” and was creating a list of what he would like to do with his winnings. That winning ticket was purchased at Gilmor Tavern, located at 300 N. Gilmor St. in Baltimore.

Although there was no jackpot winner last Friday, 37 players won $250,000 second-tier prizes throughout the country. Tomorrow night’s drawing has an estimated annuity jackpot of $363 million.

On Tuesday evening, Parkville resident Bill Pilkerton and his wife Joanne went out for their usual date night: half-priced burgers at the Valley View Inn. The couple, who was simply looking forward to a casual night out, had no idea they would leave one of their favorite restaurants with an extra $50,000.

After finishing their meal and enjoying a few drinks, Pilkerton collected his winnings from an earlier Bonus Match 5 game and decided to buy a few scratch-off tickets from the restaurant’s instant ticket vending machine. “I’d never played the Amazing 8s ticket and hadn’t been interested in it before,” the H&S Bakery sales representative explained, “I just did it on a whim.” He scratched the ticket while still at the restaurant and immediately showed Joanne, who assumed her husband was playing a joke on her.

The Pilkertons have been married for over 23 years and have two sons. Bubba, their 19 year-old son accompanied the excited couple to Lottery headquarters. Bill plans to use the money for a much-needed new car for his wife and an older “fixer-upper” muscle car for himself. The rest of his winnings will be used for bills.

The winning Amazing 8s ticket was purchased from the instant ticket vending machine at the Valley View Inn located at 8712 Satyr Hill Rd in Parkville.